Tuesday, May 14, 2013

For ages I have intended to write a series
about the names of terrorist groups and how mainstream media and sometimes even
experts tend to misname groups by mistranslating, shortening or even using a
foreign appellation as the group’s name. I believe this to be an issue as the
name a group uses tells us much about the group’s identity and core beliefs as
well as how the group wants to be perceived by its environment. Additionally,
using wrong names is just unscientific.

A good example for a group known by a name that
is not its official one is “Boko Harâm”. The group calls itself “Jamâ‘ah
Ahl al-Sunnah li-l-Da‘wah wa-l Jihâd” and has rejected the name “Boko Harâm”.
Still the group is usually referred to as “Boko Harâm” by the media. Alex
Thurston has dealt with this group’s name in detail and I’d recommend you to read it.

As already mentioned I planned to write a series
and I wanted to start with “Jabhah al-Nusrah li-Ahl al-Shâm min Mujâhidî
al-Shâm fi Sahât al Jihâd” (from now on Jabhah al-Nusrah) as the conflict in Syria in which
Jabhah al-Nusrah is participating may well be the most crucial conflict of our time.

Introducing Jabhah al-Nusrah

Jabhah al-Nusrah first made news in January
2012 when the group went public on the usual jihâdî internet forums. It had
been active since summer 2011 and has since claimed numerous attacks on the
Assad party of the Syrian conflict. The group cooperates with various other
groups some of them being part of what is known as the Free Syrian Army (from now
on FSA) while most of the groups partnering with Jabhah al-Nusrah in battles
and operations are salafî or like Jabhah al-Nusrah itself salafî-jihâdî. For more on this see this fine report by Noman Benotman and Roisin Blake for the Quilliam foundation.

In the media Jabhah al-Nusrah is best known for
its high profile suicide attacks in the large cities of Syria but the
group has participated in most of the famous conventional battlefield
successes of the Anti-Assad party of the Syrian Civil War. Furthermore the
group is actively engaged in providing civil services to the population in the
areas held by the Anti-Assad party.

In December 2012 Jabhah al-Nusrah was
designated as a terrorist group by the United States. According to this Jabhah al-Nusrah is nothing but a subsidiary company to the “Islamic
State of ‘Irâq” (a shadow-state established by the “Mujâhidîn Shûrâ Council in
‘Irâq” – a coalition of hardline Sunnî Irâqî groups and “Qâ’idah al Jihâd in the
Land of the Two Rivers” (‘Irâq) – and some smaller ‘Irâqî Sunnî groups and
tribes) that already was on the US list of designated terrorist groups.

The US were right. In early April it got
all the more interesting as the “Islamic State of ‘Irâq” (from now on ISI) announced
via its Amîr Abû Bakr al Baghdâdî that Jabhah al-Nusrah had in fact been the
creation of the ISI and would now be part of the newly established “Islamic
State in ‘Irâq and al-Shâm”.

The release of the audio message of Abû Bakr al Baghdâdî announcing the Islamic State in ‘Irâq and al-Shâm entitled "And give good tidings to the believers" on Ansâr al Mujâhidîn Arabic Forum

Jabhah al-Nusrah acknowledged via its leader (who is
interestingly referred to as General Secretary instead of the usual title Amîr)
Abû Muhammad al Jawlânî that it had in fact been funded by the
Islamic State in ‘Irâq and renewed its oath to the overall Amîr of Tandhîm Qâ‘idah
al Jihâd (from now on AQ) Dr. Ayman al-Dhawâhirî. But al Jawlânî was not okay
with shedding the name Jabhah al-Nusrah and its flag or to come under the command of the new
“Islamic State in ‘Irâq and al-Shâm”.

Speculations are that he thereby wanted to ascertain the independence of Jabhah al-Nusrah from the ISI. His public oath to al-Dhawâhirî thereby would mean the opening of a new AQ group in Syria. It may well be that this was his only way to come clear of the ISI. Still his missing title (not Amîr) baffles me. Maybe the real Amîr had all along been Abû Bakr. But if so why the refusal? Is he a subordinate who wants to be more or a leader who wants to save his group from any ISI fallout (the group had become quite unpopular in ‘Irâq)?

People may say: “Fine, so these guys are AQ in Syria.”
Organisationally they are just that (in some way which has yet to be
determined) but they did not name themselves AQ in Syria but “Jabhah al-Nusrah li-Ahl
al-Shâm min Mujâhidî al-Shâm fi Sahât al Jihâd”.

Yet that name is seldom used
in its full length. Instead the phrase “Jabhat al Nusra also known as the Nusra Front” is quite
common in the media. To be fair, the group does the same and often just uses "Jabhah al-Nusrah". Still the mentioned phrase leaves out most of the name and only translates 50 percent
of the rest. So Jabhah or Jabhat does mean “front.” That is fine, but Nusrah is
not some kind of a weird proper name. It has a meaning.

Some people got themselves their dictionaries and came
up with “Support Front” or “Victory Front”. Let us ask old Hans Wehr who got it
right:

Hans Wehr (4), p. 1138

So victory goes to the ones using “Support
Front” – to the others: thanks for trying. I will come back to the meaning of
“support” later on. So “Support Front” is the correct translation but what
about the rest of the name?

The official name is جبهة النصرة لاهل الشام من مجاهدي الشام في ساحات الجهادwhich means: The Support Front for the People of
al-Shâm from the Mujâhidîn of al-Shâm in the fields of Jihâd.

First of all, what does al-Shâm mean? Al-Shâm
is the historical name for a geographical region that may be roughly translated
as “the Levant”. It encompasses modern day Syria, Lebanon,
Jordan,
Israel/Palestine and according to some even parts of ‘Irâq, namely the Anbar
province. It may also be used as an alternative name for Damascus as the city was the capital of the
early Muslim province of al-Shâm (Encyclopedia of Islam IX, p. 289).

In recent times al-Shâm is sometimes used as a term for the envisioned entity of Lebanon joining Syria. The widely used translation for this is "Greater Syria". As this political understanding of al-Shâm belongs to the secular pro-Assad Syrian Social Nationalists Party it is obvious that al-Shâm in the context of Jabhah al-Nusrah means "the Levant". The group hereby shows that it is not willing to
be bound by modern day national borders but will try and support for example
Palestinians in the future.

So the “People of the Levant” shall be
supported by the “Mujâhidîn of the Levant”.
The term “Mujâhid” is to be understood broadly as a Muslim fighting in a religiously acceptable war (See Encyclopedia of Islam II, p. 538-540, E. Tyan). So the bulk of the members of Jabhah al-Nusrah are indentified as
being local Levantines. Not necessarily Syrian but as Syria has by far the greatest population of Sunnîs in the Levant it would make sense for Syrians to form a majority
in Jabhah al-Nusrah. The self identification as Levantine contrasts articles that stress the participation of foreign fighters with Jabhah al-Nusrah to the point of claiming that the group is mainly foreign.

The members of Jabhah al-Nusrah are identified
further. They are not only Levantine Mujâhidîn, they are Levantine Mujâhidîn in
the fields of Jihâd. Fields of Jihâd is a term used by jihâdîs to describe
regions where they are in battlefield confrontations fighting against
non-Muslims or people that they consider non-Muslims. The most prominent fields
of Jihâd for contemporary jihâdists would be Afghânistân, Irâq and Somalia.

In most of these places Syrians and other
Levantine Arabs that want to fight there have no option but to join AQ or one
of its daughters (Harakah Shabâb al Mujâhidîn in Somalia e.g.), so the name of
the group basically told us from the beginning that the founding fathers of Jabhah
al-Nusrah had been fighting with AQ before rushing to Syria to “support” the
uprising against Assad.

What do they mean by their name?

Let us look at this on a deeper layer – what is
the intended meaning of the name: Jabhah al-Nusrah is there to “support” the uprising.
They don’t want to “lead” it – or at least that is what the name says. They
show themselves via their name as a group that is not excluding nor imposing.
They are not named Ansâr al-Sharî’ah (Supporters of Islamic Law – another
interesting name) – a name that would exclude those who do not support Islamic
Law. No, they are the supporters of the people obviously they still want
sharî’ah but they don’t rub it in with their name.

The flag of Jabhah al-Nusrah appears in demonstrations throughout Syria. Those who carry it are quite often civilian sympathizers. The flag encompasses the Muslim testament of faith: "There is no God but Allah - Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah" in calligraphic style and the group's shortened name "Jabhah al-Nusrah" written below.

While leaving the maybe somewhat controversial
religious or partisan names like al Qâ’idah (tarnished by terrorism), Islamic
State (tarnished by the doings of the ISI and quite imposing), Ansâr
al-Sharî’ah (a name that jihâdîs deem a good idea in societies that are more conservative compared to Syria)
or sth. like that they still use a religious term in their name: One that is
quite negatively understood in the West but not so in the Arab and Muslim world
namely Jihâd.

They are Mujâhidîn – those who do Jihâd
(religious struggle – in this case fighting) – on the fields of Jihâd.
Mujâhidîn has a positive, religiously legitimizing ring to it – see here is
someone who struggles for the religion – and is furthermore including. Whether
you are with the FSA (even one of the rather secular parts of that group mind
you) or with an independent Islamist group or with Jabhah al-Nusrah all do use
the term Mujâhîd and all may be identified by that term (Granted there was a
time when Thuwâr (revolutionaries) was en vogue but no longer so).

All these including, positive and religiously
wide terms are quite likely linked to the image problem that AQ suffers from
and that even their late Amîr Usâmah bin Lâden mentioned in internal documents
that were released by the US after the Abbotabâd Raid. He took special interest
in the term Jihâd and Mujâhidîn and was not happy about the media dropping that
part of the name of AQ or its daughters (example Harakah Shabâb al Mujâhidin
– Movement of the Mujâhidîn Youth but al-Shabâb – The Youth). Well, it
happened again with Jabhah al-Nusrah but this time they were clever enough to
have the first part of the name to be positive too.

Is there a deeper meaning to their name?

After looking at what the name tells us and
what Jabhah al-Nusrah wants to tell their Syrian and wider Arab/Muslim audience
with their name let us go to a third layer: What does the name mean for jihâdîs
themselves? The last paragraph dealt with the propaganda intent that they most
likely had when choosing their name but the people we deal with aren’t mercenaries (unlike Assad's propaganda tries to convey). They
fight for a cause that they believe in and that is their religion.

But what are the religious implications of
their name? Jihâd and Mujâhidîn are quite obvious. They believe that they are
fighting a just Islamic war against non-Muslims. There are books about the
meanings of Jihâd and there are certainly different understandings but the one
above is theirs and I suppose not that many Sunnî Muslims would disagree with
the statement that there is a jihâd going on in Syria.

The first term that I want to look at is Nusrah
– support. Obviously the word nusrah and its relative nasr appear often in
Islamic literature but one Qur’ânic expression comes to mind when speaking
about salafî-jihâdî reasoning for jihad:

وَإِنِ
اسْتَنْصَرُوكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ فَعَلَيْكُمُ النَّصْرُ

“but if they seek your aid in religion, it is
your duty to help them” (Translation: Yûsuf ‘Alî)

This is part of Al Anfâl (8): 72. The sentence
is widely used in jihâdî circles to justify defensive jihad. In fact so widely,
that when googling it my first page of results included a speech by a Harakah
al-Shabâb al Mujâhidîn member using it as the title. As you may know the islamophobic babble about the sword verses in the Qur’ân that talk about offensive jihâd is wrong, those verses are
rarely used in jihâdî literature.

Jabhah al-Nusrah believes that helping the
Syrian people who asked for their help (nasr or nusrah) is their religious
duty. It is not only that they can open a new AQ shop in Syria they feel
religiously compelled and honour-bound to help.

Those who believed, and adopted exile, and
fought for the Faith, with their property and their persons, in the cause of
God, as well as those who gave (them) asylum and aid,- these are (all) friends
and protectors, one of another. As to those who believed but came not into
exile, ye owe no duty of protection to them until they come into exile; but if
they seek your aid in religion, it is your duty to help them, except against a
people with whom ye have a treaty of mutual alliance. And (remember) God seeth
all that ye do.

(8:72; Yûsuf ‘Alî's translation)

Obviously this deals with the situation of the
early Muslims who had to leave Makkah for Madînah but maybe Jabhah al-Nusrah members
consider themselves to be in the same position. They emigrated from Syria (and the rest of the Levant)
to the fields of Jihâd. They fought with their property and their persons but
now those who did not leave with them call them for help in religion. That
would be quite a powerful allegory.

The other term is al-Shâm. Above the
geographical question what is al-Shâm was already dealt with. But al-Shâm
has another meaning to jihâdîs. Al-Shâm is according to Muslim beliefs the place where great battles will
take place at the end of the world. If you want to read up on the importance of eschatoligical al-Shâm to temporary jihâdîs in English I'd point you to a book by the notorious Shaykh Abû Qatâdah al Filastînî that is entitled: Characteristics of the
Victorious Party in the Foundation of the State of the Believers (the Land of Ash-Shām) and available online in an english translation. Abû Qatâdah is by the way considered one of the most influential jihâdî scholars alive. You may have heard about Britain's trouble to change his residence from Belmarsh to Jordan.

Anyways, just to give you an idea about al-Shâm in Islamic eschatology I'll quote one of the most important texts which is the following Hadîth (saying of the Prophet
Muhammad) that is already widely used by jihâdîs:

‘Abdullah ibn Hawâlah
[Allah's blessings be on him] narrated from the Messenger of Allah [peace be upon
him] that he said:

"Matters will run
their course until you become three armies: an army in al-Shâm, an army in Yemen, and an
army in ‘Irâq".

Ibn Hawâlah said:
"Choose for me, oh Messenger of Allah, in case I live to see that
day."

The Messenger of Allah [peace
be upon him] said: "You should go to al-Shâm, for it is the best of
Allah's lands, and the best of His slaves will be drawn there! And if you refuse,
then you should go to the Yemen
and drink from its wells, for Allah has guaranteed me that He will look after al-Shâm
and its people!"

(Imâm Ahmad 4/110, Abû Dawûd
2483)

Here we have a direct order from the Prophet
Muhammad to his followers to gather in al-Shâm. The very Hadîth has ironically
been used by Abû Basîr Nâsir al Wuhayshî who is the Amîr of Tandhîm Qâ‘idah al Jihâd fî
Jazîrah al ‘Arab (Qâ‘idah al Jihâd Organisation on the Arabian Peninsula - AQAP) to get people going to Yemen. Now it is Syria’s
time to get their share of eschatologist jihâdîs who believe in the nearing of
the world’s end and want to be with the “guaranteed” people of al-Shâm.

Jabhah al-Nusrah alluded to this eschatological thinking right from the beginning by naming its media arm al Manârah al Baydâ´ - the White Minaret. The White Minaret is the place where according to Muslim beliefs Jesus will descend from Heaven to fight the Dajjâl (the anti-Christ) in a great end time battle. Aaron Zelin dealt with this right after Jabhah al-Nusrah announced themselves.

The logo of Jabhah al-Nusrah's media chapter. The screen reads: With greetings from your brothers in - al Manârah al Baydâ´- Do not forget us in your sincere supplications

Again, this is a topic of great benefit for propaganda efforts and it is already used for recruiting purposes but I am convinced
that the founders of Jabhah al-Nusrah themselves believe in this prophecy and
may have come to Syria at least in part exactly because of these end time
related characteristics of Syria.

-----

Concluding: Besides the obvious political
manoeuvring concerning the role of Jabhah al-Nusrah in the wider AQ context I
can totally understand Abû Muhammad al Jawlânî in so far as he does not want to
let go of the carefully crafted, deeply symbolic, positive and including name
that their PR bureau has worked out. Time will tell whether he prevails and Jabhah al-Nusrah keeps its name or has to fold into the Islamic State of ‘Irâq and al-Shâm. At the moment all signs point to the latter.

The flag used by the Islamic State of ‘Irâq as seen in the release information accompanying the announcement of the Islamic State in ‘Irâq and al-Shâm and most likely the one to be used by this new group.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

… and nobody cares. About two weeks ago al-Qâ’idah’s
media arm al-Sahâb released a new video message – the fourth part of the Urdû language series Sharî’ah or Democracy. The intended audience of the series are
the Pâkistânî people whom AQ wants to convince that democracy is bad. The
latest instalment has quite some things to say about corruption and rising
poverty in Pâkistân.

The interesting thing is the speakers. As most
times with AQC releases these days the official AQ spokesman in Pâkistân (Head
of the Propagation and Media Department in Pâkistân) Ustâdh Ahmad Fârûq makes
an audio appearance on a still image with his face blurred, nothing new here.

1. Fârûq: The caption in the upper left corner reads Ustad (Prof.) Ahmad Fârûq may Allah protect him

The second speaker though is somewhat a
surprise. It is Farmân Shinwârî – a Kashmîr veteran who belonged to Harakah al
Mujâhidîn and most likely joined AQC alongside the eminent field commander Muhammad Ilyâs Kashmîrî who became AQ’s head in Pâkistân. Shinwârî is reported to have
taken that job after both Kashmîrî and his successor Badr Mansûr had been
killed in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

And now he is dead, or so al-Sahâb casually
informs us by adding the religious phrase “May Allah have mercy on him” to his
name – a phrase that is usually used for the deceased (the only exception would
be using it on oneself such as the author of a letter adding the phrase to his
own name). The still image of Shinwârî is furthermore not blurred. Chatter in Pâkistânî
forums says that he has been killed in a drone strike.

2. Shinwârî: The caption in the upper left corner reads Kamândân (Cmdr.) Farmân Shinwârî may Allah have mercy on him

Now, two weeks after the release of the video I
have not seen a single report on this quite huge development. While we usually
hear about dead AQ big shots just hours after their demise, the by-the-way-announcement that AQ’s commander in Pâkistân has been killed seems to have gone
unnoticed.

Is it media incompetence? Is nobody interested
in AQC any longer? Does no one bother to watch AQ’s Urdû videos? Or is it that
Shinwârî was basically unknown as he never went through a media hyping like Ilyâs
Kashmîrî? Finally, was he in fact AQ’s head in Pâkistân? I’m interested in your
take on this!